Remarks at Amherst College on the Arts

Multilingual transcripts

On a beautiful autumn Saturday at the end of October 1963, President Kennedy flew to Amherst College in Massachusetts to take part in a ceremony in honor of the poet Robert Frost who had died in January of that year. In deciding what he might say, the President decided upon Frost’s inaugural theme of poetry and power and the significance of Robert Frost and of poetry for the United States and for the world. In the thousand days of his administration, President and Mrs. Kennedy had sparked a revival of national interest in matters cultural and intellectual. In this speech delivered on October 26, 1963 before an estimated crowd of 10,000 people, President Kennedy made clear the need for a nation to represent itself not only through its strength but also through its art..

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